


As Food for Life

by calypsid



Series: Care and Feeding [5]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Glasses, I'd kill for a burger right now, This is my life now, okay, post-destroy, they're just cute, vague hospital shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29091537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calypsid/pseuds/calypsid
Summary: The end of the world is seriously lacking in decent take-out.(Care and Feeding is a series of stand-alone one-shots.)
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: Care and Feeding [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/219806
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	As Food for Life

His hand lights on the doorknob, but as always, Garrus has to take a breath before he can open the door. The what-ifs are too powerful to ignore. But he has practice quelling this particular anxiety; he opens the door, holding the bag in front of him like a shield.

There's no response. He straightens, suddenly alarmed, but Shepard _looks_ all right, sitting up in the bed, staring intently at her hands in her lap.

There's something new on her face, though; glass in a thin metal frame covers and surrounds her eyes, like his visor. And now that he looks more closely, he can see the tight, fine wrinkles in her forehead and the set of her mouth, the expression she gets when she's working out how she feels about something.

He tosses the bag of food to the side and sinks into his chair, set near the head of her bed. He leans in a little closer; she glances at him, relaxing, letting her hands fall more naturally. "What's this?" he asks.

She licks her lip. "My cybernetics are acting up," she says, finally. "The ones in my eyes. And no one in this place seems to know how to fix them, so..." She gestures dismissively at her face. "Glasses."

"Glasses," he echoes, looking her like it's the first time. The glasses emphasize her eyes and shield them at the same time, a curiously distancing effect that Garrus isn't sure he likes. She twists her mouth in a manner he's sure is supposed to be dismissive. She doesn't like them, he realizes; London turned both of them inside out, and nobody's in a hurry to talk about what happened, but something's there, something that hurts her.

They're actually pretty, he decides. On her, that is. She pushes them a little further up her face, wrinkling her nose at the unfamiliar weight. They're tilted; he straightens them, tucking one side deeper into her hair. 

At that, she smiles. "At least I can see again," she says, her whole face softening; she reaches out to touch his face, thankfully on the side where he can feel her soft, human fingers trail over his cheekbone. "I'm no krogan, but..."

"I don't know, Shepard, I think you've been adopted," he says. He can't help his quiet laugh at the thought; Wrex was quite emphatic about the idea, and quite willing to point out that Shepard's almost krogan royalty now at the slightest hint that she's being neglected.

Not that anyone would dare. Not now.

She pokes him. "Shush." She waits until he's folded his lips together in mock-penitence before she continues. "You should get out of here. At least _someone_ should." Presented with his unimpressed face, she sighs. "I'm _fine_ , Garrus. They're just being fussy."

Garrus just stares at her. She hadn't been conscious for the most terrifying thirty-five minutes of his life, when her life hung by a thread and they weren't sure she was going to come back at all. As far as he was concerned, she could stay here until they both died of old age and it wouldn't be long enough.

Shepard tries to poke him again, but he catches her hand this time and laces their fingers together instead. "I don't really think you want to send away the delivery guy," he says, reaching out and snagging the bag of food that Shepard definitely wasn't allowed to have. Garrus brings out the prize: a thick, juicy burger, made from real cow, still hot from the grill. Shepard's eyes light up. Garrus has to laugh. 

"It's cruel to tease the sick, Garrus," she says, settling back onto the bed and glaring. 

"Oh, you think this is yours?" he says. He takes a long, overexaggerated sniff of the burger; truthfully it does nothing for him, but Shepard's scowl could scare the shell off a krogan. "This is mine... but I could be convinced to part with it. For the right price."

Shepard eyes him warily. "And that is?" 

"Hmm..." he says, drawing it out as long as he dares. He doesn't want the food to go cold. "Oh, I know." Garrus taps his cheekbone and presents it to her, waiting while the slightest touch of nerves clutches at his stomach; he's not sure she's up for this kind of silliness yet. Everything and everyone's been so serious since London. It's time for that to change, and truthfully... he misses this, the playful teasing between lovers.

Shepard rolls her eyes, but she also levers herself to sit more upright on the bed so she can lean over and kiss him on the cheek. "You don't need to trade for those, you know," she tells him, scolding him, which he would believe more if her eyes weren't laughing. Everything in him relaxes at the sight. 

"I think this burger is worth at _least_ four more," Garrus says.

"That is literally highway robbery," Shepard informs him, but she obliges him anyway. A few minutes later - they may have gotten overly enthusiastic with the kissing - Garrus hands over the burger, and the sight of Shepard tearing into it pleases him, too; her appetite's been shaky. He folds the bag tighter to keep the fries warm for later.

Shepard notices that the bag isn't empty. "What else is in there? And how much am I gonna owe you for it?"

"Oh, just some fries," Garrus says, leaning back in his chair. Her face goes predatory, and he grins. "And I was thinking... keep the glasses. They suit you."

Shepard's mouth parts a little in surprise, but then her whole face goes soft. "Fetishist," she accuses, but she's laughing, so he'll take the win. 

Yeah, he thinks. It's gonna be okay.


End file.
